Bucks Council care services to be inspected by CQC for first time in 16 years

The unitary authority has completed ‘intensive’ evidence gathering for England’s regulator of health and social care and is now awaiting a three-day inspection of its adult social care services.

These services are supposed to help residents plan their care needs, support people to live independently and provide support for carers.

The CQC inspection of adult social care was confirmed by a council director in an email seen by the BBC’s Local Democracy Reporting Service.

It reads: “We have waited a long time for this inspection, in fact the last time adult social care was inspected was in the old County Council in 2008, so this will be new to many of our staff who may be understandably nervous about the process.

“I am confident though that there is much to be proud of and will be supporting the team throughout.”

The staff member also told colleagues that the inspection will yield a report similar to an Ofsted one, along with a one-word rating, it will be broken down into ratings for each area inspected.

CQC inspections of local authorities were restarted under powers given to the watchdog by the Health and Care Act 2022.

The council’s cabinet member for health and wellbeing, Councillor Angela Macpherson said: “​The CQC organise the schedule for when they inspect councils and aim to carry out their assessment on all local authority adult social care services within a two-year period from December 2023.”